In the proposal to AIF, Professor Winningham and Professor Lenardic proposed to construct a new course for the spring 2014, followed by a month of evaluation, editing, and the production of an exhibition of photographs. The course would be jointly taught by Professors Winningham and Lenardic and open to 12 students. The subject of study for the course would be the landscape of Galveston Island and its adjacent wetlands and bays.

The course, by necessity, will be experimental and improvisational in nature, as the two instructors will be working together for the first time and no comparable courses have been found at other institutions to provide models. Still, certain issues, principles, and priorities have been considered. The pilot course will be an experiment in combining the scientific disciplines of the earth sciences with the artistic disciplines of creative photography to study the natural landscapes and ecosystems of the Galveston area. The course will combine classroom lectures, laboratory demonstrations, and extensive field trips. Professor Lenardic will lecture on the geoscience of the area and do experiments in the field; Professor Winningham will use laboratory demonstrations to build students' skills in landscape photography and give illustrated lectures on achievements in landscape photography through the history of the medium.

Students will travel frequently, at times in pairs, other times in larger groups and as a full class, accompanied by one or both professors. Students will photograph with both traditional film cameras and current DSLR digital cameras, since both film and digital mediums hold unique and distinctive possibilities for photographing the landscape.

For years, Professor Winningham and Professor Lenardic have exchanged ideas and speculated on the possibility of a collaborative course they might teach, exploring the interrelationships of scientific and artistic visions of the landscape. Grassroots discussion leads them to believe that a complete split of these two cultures (science and art) need not exist at a true liberal arts university.

"We fully realize that a joint course exploring the scientific and artistic representation of nature, populated by science and art majors, would be an 'experiment.' However, in our discussions of the idea of the course, we have brought to light some interesting observations that might help and guide us. The famous English landscape painter, John Constable, once noted: 'Why then, may not landscape painting be considered a branch of natural philosophy, of which pictures are but experiments.' One of the great landscape scientists, a geomorphologist, when asked to describe the methods of his science students should use to proceed in their inquires, put first on his list 'selective and concentrated observation.'"

More information on the class will be forthcoming on the Visual and Dramatic Arts website, arts.rice.edu.

Throughout my career as a photographer and journalist, I have focused my time and energy on one major, long-term project at a time. My subjects have included professional wrestling, stock shows and rodeos, high school football, the city of Houston, Mexican fiestas, the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, and Galveston Island.

This show includes more and more photographs from each of these projects, plus other photographs, not related to any particular project, made one the past forty years. Together, this set of pictures constitutes a cross-section of my life's work, with a specific theme of their own: each of these photographs is either a picture of a picture or a picture of words.

Part of what I find intriguing about this idea of "pictures and words" is that my major ongoing interest throughout my entire career has been in bringing pictures and words together in the form of books. Here, in this collection of photographs, pictures and words are subjects in their own right.

In assembling this show, I have made an effort to include the full range of photographic print media that I have used over the years. The show includes vintage gelatin silver prints, traditional "type c" color prints, photogravures, archivalinkjet prints, and carbon pigment prints on brushed aluminum.

PROFESSOR WINNINGHAM RECEIVES GRANT FROM THE ARKANSAS HUMANITIES COUNCIL

Photography Professor Geoff Winningham has received a grant from the Arkansas Humanities Council through the University of Arkansas, Fay Jones School of Architecture, for his book project, Of the Soil: Photographs of Architecture and Stories of Changing Times in Arkansas (University of Arkansas Press). The Arkansas Humanities Council is an independent affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Professor Winningham, who worked closely with the late Professor Cyrus Sutherland of the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, will use the grant to produce a book of photographs of lost Arkansas vernacular architecture. The book will include interviews and writings with individuals whose lives have been directly related to the buildings. The purpose of recording this history is to provide historical, sociological, and personal context for the architecture. "These are not homes of the 'rich and famous,' nor are they the grand public buildings designed by distinguished architects well-known to the general public. Instead, for the most part, these are humble, previously unrecognized structures. The importance of the research, as well as the project as a whole, is that it will bring public recognition to the simple beauty and importance of this kind of architecture." --Geoff Winningham

Professor Winningham traveled throughout all areas of Arkansas from 1980 to 1983 and shot over 3,000 photographs of over 1,000 architecture structures, guided largely by Sutherland's encyclopedic knowledge of Arkansas architecture. Out of the entire archive of Winningham's Arkansas photography, with the exception of proofing, only 89 negatives have been printed to date. Seventy-eight prints, originally owned by the First Federal Savings and Loan of Little Rock are now in the special collections of the University of Arkansas libraries, eight are in the art collection of Tyson Foods, Inc., and three are in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

The Arkansas Humanities Council believes that everyone can benefit from study of the humanities under the guidance of humanities scholars. The organization was incorporated in 1974 to develop a statewide program to acquaint the citizens of Arkansas with the academic fields of study known as the humanities. These fields are concerned with human experiences, beliefs, and ideas, and represent specific bodies of knowledge, methods of gathering information, and ways of thinking, talking and writing about their subject matter.

All
Visual and Dramatic Arts studio and film track majors are invited to
apply for the 2012 Mavis C. Pitman Fellowship Exhibition.

To apply for this fellowship, students must complete the Mavis C. Pitman
Fellowship Exhibition application, attend the general information
session to be held November 1 in the film auditorium in the Rice Media
Center, and have a department faculty sponsor.

The fellowship
supports the creation of an original body of work to be exhibited in a
group exhibition in the department's gallery in the Rice Media Center
during the spring semester.

Fellowship recipients will receive up to $1,300 to create an original
body of work (open media). In addition, recipients will be
responsible for
curating, hanging, and setting up the exhibition; creating an original
graphic (representing and including all three artists) for exhibition
announcements (postcards, space on the department website, and inclusion
in the department calendar); preparing a ten-minute talk about the
work; and coordinating the exhibition's opening reception.

To
apply for this fellowship, download the application and
attend the November 1 information session. For more information, please
contact Rachel Boyle in the department's office (713-348-4882,
rboyle@rice.edu).

Rice Cinema will screen a retrospective of noted Mexican filmmaker
Arturo Ripstein's work Sept. 9-11. Ripstein will attend the film
screenings Sept. 9 and 10 and will discuss them with audience members.

The series is free and open to the public and will be shown at Rice
Cinema on the Rice University campus, 6100 Main St. For directions, go
to www.rice.edu/maps/maps.html.

"The Films of Arturo Ripstein: A Retrospective Film Series" begins
Sept. 9 with "El Castillo de la Pureza" ("The Castle of Purity"), the
story of a disciplined and sexually driven man who keeps his family
isolated in his home for years to protect them from the "evil nature" of
human beings while inventing (with his wife) rat poison. Doors open at 6
p.m., and Ripstein will be interviewed at 6:30. The film will be shown
at 7 p.m., followed by a reception.

"Principio y Fin" ("Beginning and End") will screen at 6:30 p.m.
Sept. 10. Based on the novel by Nobel Prize winner Naguib Mahfouz,
"Principio y Fin" tells the story of a middle-class family struggling
against poverty after their father's death. There will be a reception at
5 p.m., and Ripstein and screenwriter Paz Alicia Garciadiego will be
interviewed at 6 p.m.

The series ends Sept. 11 with a double feature. "Profundo Carmesi"
("Deep Crimson") begins at 3 p.m. The film examines the life of a man
who preys on unsuspecting women for a living, but is changed when he
finds an accomplice in the woman who loves and controls him. And "El
Carnaval de Sodoma" ("Crazy Carnival"), in which residents of a bordello
scurry to put together their outfits for an annual carnival, screens at
5 p.m.

All films will be shown in Spanish with English subtitles.

The festival is sponsored by Rice University's Multicultural
Community Relations in the Office of Public Affairs, the Department of Visual and Dramatic Arts' Rice Cinema, the
Department of Hispanic Studies, and the Mexican Consulate.

GOING BACK TO GALVESTON: NATURE, FUNK, AND FANTASY IN A FAVORITE PLACEBy M. Jimmie Killingsworth (author) and Geoff Winningham (photographer)

In this witty, thoughtful, and clear-eyed
look at a place that has engaged the imaginations and energies of
generations of Galvestonians, Texans, and others, writer M. Jimmie
Killingsworth and photographer and Rice University Department of Visual and Dramatic Arts Professor Geoff Winningham reflect on the various
Galvestons—virtual and real, natural and artificial—that compete and
overlap to create a location, a destination, and the defining
experiences associated with “going to Galveston.

From the tepid,
still waters and steamy beaches of the Texas Gulf Coast to the
computerized, air-conditioned seductions of places like Moody Gardens
and the Rainforest Café, Galveston offers a wide array of opportunities
for observation of the frequently ironic interplay of human and natural
history. Killingsworth’s affectionate, wry prose and Winningham’s
distinctive, surprising images offer a unique tribute to Galveston’s
past, present, and future: a barrier island that once hosted native
peoples, shipwrecked Spaniards, and buccaneers; a birding hotspot that
draws nature watchers from all over the world to its estuarine and bay
habitats; a hurricane-buffeted city built for tourism, with a
storied—sometimes shady—nightlife, a restored historic downtown
district, and a trucked-in beach.

Going Back to Galveston is a deeply personal meditation on why and how people relate to the places they love.

PROFESSOR WINNINGHAM'S WORK INCLUDED IN MUSEUM OF MODERN ART EXHIBITIONExhibition opened May 13, The Edward Steichen Photography Gallery, Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Professor
Geoff Winningham's work is included in a show that opened on May 13 at
the Museum of Modern Art, New York. The show is a history of
photography exhibition, with emphasis on recent acquisitions.
Winningham's print, Tag Team Action, 1971, which is in the Museum of Modern Art's permanent collection, is in the show.

Visual and Dramatic Arts Lecturer Paul Hester will deliver a talk on his photography for the book, Houston's Silent Garden: Glenwood Cemetery, 1871-2009, at the Architecture Center Houston's Authors in Architecture. The talk and book signing is sponsored by the Architecture Center of Houston, Houston Public Library, and KUHF-FM.

Hester
also served on the Texas Society of Architects 2011 Honor Awards
Committee that will present the awards at the 72nd convention next
fall in Dallas. Hester was distinguished with an award from the society
last year.

PAUL HESTER: DOING TIME IN HOUSTON, 1966-2011Exhibition at the Architecture Center Houston

Paul
Hester's photography shades in the revolving moments of our everyday
lives with the context of time and place -- where we were and where we
are going -- and his exhibition, Doing Time in Houston 1966-2011, tells these stories.

Organized
on a continuum, the work, which is on display at Architecture Center
Houston, documents the ever-transforming architecture and streets of
Houston over the past 45 years. In collaborating with other
photographers and re-examining and juxtaposing photographs of the past
and present, Hester weaves together these images and reveals that even
the simple, ephemeral moments of the ordinary can convey the complex
movementof our lives.

"I wanted the viewer to think that if they had been there they would have seen exactly the same thing," Hester tells Art Attack.
"That ordinary, everyday kind of stuff...something that we would rush
through to catch a bus, to get to the next meeting... photography, it
holds everything still, it slows us down, it's contemplative."

RICE FILM STUDENT PRODUCES FILM ON FIVE KAZAKHSTAN WOMENRice visual arts student Gabi Chennisi and Harvard student Abigail Hooks produce Babushka, a film on the lives of Kazakhstan women

The last of the former Soviet republics to declare independence after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Kazakhstan has spent the last two decades struggling to redefine its cultural identity. Despite sweeping economic and political reforms, the wounds left from nearly eighty years of repression, forced collectivization, starvation, and violence still haunt the country.

While for many younger Kazakhs this tumultuous past is nothing but a history lesson, the grandmothers of Kazakhstan have lived through the entire struggle for autonomy and independence. These babushkas bore witness to years of destruction and regeneration. The history of their homeland and the memories of the past are inextricably intertwined.

Babushka is showing at 7:00 p.m., April 26 in the Visual and Dramatic Arts film auditorium in the Rice Media Center. Admission is free.

The Department of Visual and Dramatic Arts is calling for
applications for the Eleanor & Frank Freed Traveling Fellowship.

Eleanor and Frank
Freed Traveling Fellowship supports travel any time after the end of the
spring semester and before the beginning of fall semester. Travel must be
for the study of art or film and may include travel to museum collections,
installations, galleries, artist colonies or workshops, film sets or studios,
visual archives, ancient or modern archaeological sites, and significant
historic or contemporary buildings in the United States or abroad.

This
fellowship
is awarded by way of competitive proposal and portfolio review each
spring. Proposals of around $1,000 will be considered; however, awards
will vary depending upon the project, merit, destination,
and available budget.

Applications must include the application cover form,
project summary, budget, and portfolio of current proposed work (DC/ROM or
PowerPoint format preferred). March 1
is the application deadline. No electronic applications will be
accepted.

The Department of Visual and Dramatic Arts is calling for
applications for the Mary Ellen Hale Lovett
Traveling Fellowship for 2011.

The Mary Ellen Hale Travel Fellowship
supports research travel to significant
sites (museums, galleries, study programs, exhibitions, etc.) that
encourage artistic research and production. Travel may be in the
continental United States or abroad.

This fellowship is awarded
by way of
competitive proposal and portfolio review each spring. Proposals of
around $2,000 will be considered; however, awards will vary depending
upon the
project, merit, destination, and available budget.

Applications
must include the application cover form, project summary, budget, and portfolio
of current proposed work (DC/ROM or PowerPoint format preferred). March 1 is the application deadline.
No electronic applications will be accepted.

Professor Geoff Winningham's latest book, Traveling the Shore of the Spanish Sea: The Gulf Coast of Texas and Mexico, published by Texas A&M University Press, is the recipient of the Texas State Historical Association's Ron Tyler Award for the Best Illustrated Book on Texas History and Culture for 2010. The book is the result of seven years (and over 100 trips) of work that show cases the two countries he calls home. This beautifully illustrated and engagingly written book considers the role that the Gulf of Mexico played in the discovery and exploration of the New World.

The award will be presented at the TSHA awards luncheon on Friday, March 4, in El Paso, Texas.

Rice Film Program's theory and criticism lecturer, Dr. Charles Dove, received the Houston Film Critics Society Award for Outstanding Achievement December 18 at a ceremony at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Dr. Dove received the award along with Hector Luna, founder and editor of the magazine C-47 Houston.

Other recipients of special categories were George Clooney, who received the Humanitarian Award, and Sissy Spacek, who received a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Read more about the awards in Marian Luntz's blog for the Houston Chronicle, SmARTFilm. More >>

FILM STUDENTS PRODUCE FILM FOR NATIONAL 'FEEL YOUR BOOBIES CONTEST'

Film students Gabi Chennisi, Adrien Pellerin, and Austin Lipinski have created two entries for the nationwide "Feel Your Boobies Video Contest". The contest calls for a humorous video that reminds women to check for breast cancer by 'feeling their boobies'. The entry with the most votes gets $10,000! Their two videos are top contenders for winning the grand prize, but they need more votes. Here's what you can do to help:

1. Go online to BOTH of our videos (you can vote for multiple entries every day, so be sure to vote for both):

3. You'll be prompted to set up an account, which only takes a couple seconds. Don't forget your account information (since you'll use it to vote every day).

4. VOTE FOR OUR MOVIES

5. Leave a comment.

6. VOTE AGAIN EVERY DAY UNTIL OCTOBER 27, and pass this along to everyone you know!

Voting every day is the most important part, so don't forget!!

Additional Information:*If you have multiple email accounts (like Rice and Gmail), you can set up multiple accounts to vote from!*If you have trouble setting up a 'display name' when you create an account, it's because someone already has that name, so pick something else!

Mark Brice raises his hands and Emmy in celebration after receiving the award.Cinematographer, producer, director, and Emmy Award winner Mark Brice returns to Rice to screen the documentary film 'Carrier' on October 21, 6:30 p.m., Rice Media Center, Film Auditorium.

Mark Brice '80 has spent time sleeping under the stars in Africa,
crossing through war zones in Burundi, trailing an anti-kidnapping unit
in Brazil and living aboard an aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf.

It's
that last experience that led Brice, a documentary filmmaker, to the
strangest place of all: Hollywood. Earlier this month, Brice was awarded
the Emmy for Outstanding Cinematography for a Reality Series for his
work on the PBS film "Carrier." Produced by Mel Gibson, "Carrier" is a 10-hour series that follows a six-month deployment of the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier during the Iraq War.

"The
Media Center at Rice was my launching pad," Brice said. "When James
Blue came into my high school and showed us a 16-millimeter film he shot
in Africa and talked about what he did, I thought, 'I want to do
that.'"

CHARLES DOVE TO SPEAK AT ALUMNI FEBRUARY 20Rice Alumni Weekend, February 19-21

Visual and Dramatic Arts lecturer and film program director, Dr. Charles Dove, will speak on global cinema during the Rice University Alumni College Weekend, February 19-21.

The talk will be Saturday afternoon, February 20, and will look at genre in a global text, emphasizing the way in which ideas about storytelling circulate across national and ethnic boundaries.

Raised in Chicago, Charles Dove received his bachelor of arts from the University of Illinois. He studied in Baltimore at Johns Hopkins University, where he received both a master of arts and a doctorate. His areas of teaching and research are Hollywood, early cinema, genre, 19th- and 20th-century literature, and film and literary theory.

Interconnectivity is an exhibition themed around human
emotion and is a video portrayal of human connection through the body,
conversation and ordinary acts of human interaction. This is the first
all video exhibition to take place in space125gallery. The exhibition
will be on view through August 14, 2009. Opening reception will take
place July 9, 2009 from 6 p.m. – 8 p.m.

Serena Lin Bush’s work Affinities is inspired
by the emotional bond formed between two adopted sisters. Subtle plays
of friction caused by the rubbing of skin against skin, cloth and hair
project contagious repetitive motion. The dual screens interact with
one another creating a visual parallel of events.

Magsamen + Hillenbrand’sLove You to Death
approaches connection through the psychological landscape that composes
family. A mother and father are holding their son and daughter. The
hold starts as a loving traditional portrait and eventually unfolds as
forced and uncomfortably controlling. The piece raises questions about
love, parenthood and the aging process.

Tish Stringer’sIraqi Artists in Exile portrays
human emotion to its fullest capacity, in all of its forms: fear, love,
empathy and uncertainty. It is a portrait of humanity and through
Stringer’s keen eye for environments; the tactile elements of life seem
to resonate from the screen. Through verbal accounts over tea, artists
open up about their artwork, what moves them as artists and how the
political climate of their nation impacts their lives.

Serena Lin Bush, Mary Magsamen, Stephan Hillerbrand and Tish
Stringer are all Individual Artist Grantees. The Individual Artists
Grant program represents just one of the many ways in which HAA
supports Houston’s artistic community. The City of Houston annually
supports this and more than 200 additional arts grants.

RICE ALUM TARIQ TAPA TO PREMIER FILM AT THE LOS ANGELES FILM FESTIVAL‘Zero Bridge’ Premiere June 20 & 24th

"★★★★(4 Stars) A BULL'S EYE... a surprise from start to finish that will move those with hearts of stone. Spontaneous, energetic... reveals a director who has developed his own distinctive voice." -- ARTE-TV France, Julien Welter

“Delicate and moving... a magnificent fresco on the Indian province which brings us within this distant civilization suspended between past and future... Harshly convincing but at the same time able to retain a sweetness, in scenes of tender silences and glances.” -- Drammaturgia, Marco Luceri

Zero Bridge, written and directed by Tariq Tapa, tells the
coming-of-age story of Dilawar, an unloved but clever teenage
pickpocket planning his escape from occupied Kashmir and from his
strict uncle, Ali Muhammed, a weary mason worker who struggles to make
ends meet and to raise the rebellious young man. Dilawar’s selfish
plans take a twist, however, when he forms an unorthodox bond to Bani,
the bright, nurturing woman whose life he ruined during his most recent
stealing spree. Dilawar’s previous actions endanger his friendship with Bani, as well as both of their futures.

This is the first dramatic narrative feature film about contemporary
daily life in the Indian-occupied city of Srinagar, Kashmir. It was
filmed entirely on location in Srinagar, with a strictly local cast of
first-time, non-professional actors performing in their native Kashmiri
language and with a technical crew of one: the director.

Zero Bridge is a hopeful, human portrait of a teen pickpocket whose chance encounter with one of his victims upends his escape plans in this gritty, moving story about daily life in Kashmir.

WHAT IS THE LOS ANGELES FILM FESTIVAL?Now in its fifteenth year, the Los Angeles Film Festival is widely recognized as a world-class event, showcasing the best in new American and international cinema and providing the movie-loving public with access to some of the most critically acclaimed filmmakers, film industry professionals, and emerging talent from around the world.

Drawing on an expected attendance of 85,000, the Festival provides films with theopportunity to be embraced by the public and discovered by the industry. More than 70 feature films – narrative and documentary - are featured in the Festival, alongside gala premieres, panels and seminars, short film programs, music video showcases, free outdoor screenings, live musical performances, and unique signature events.

WHO CAN ATTEND THE FESTIVAL?The Festival attracts a huge spectrum of audiences from Los Angeles and around the world. This year, we anticipate over 85,000 attendees.

HOW DO I PURCHASE TICKETS OR PASSES TO A SCREENING?Festival passes for the 2009 Los Angeles Film Festival go on sale Monday, May 18.Tickets to individual screenings will be available for purchase beginning on May 29.Passes and tickets can be purchased on this web site or over the phone at 866.FILMFEST (345-6337). Walk up sales or passes and tickets will begin at the Festival Ticket Center on Friday, June 12.

HOW MANY FILMS PLAY IN THE FESTIVAL? HOW MANY WERE SUBMITTED?More than 200 narrative, documentary, shorts and music videos will be screening at the Festival. This year, the Festival programmers considered more than 4,600 films.

HOW ARE FILMS SELECTED FOR THE FESTIVAL?Films submitted to the Festival are reviewed by our programming department, which evaluates each film, looking for the best in new independent American and international cinema.

WHAT ARE SOME FILMS THAT HAVE PLAYED IN PAST FESTIVALS?Recent Festival films include Anvil! The Story of Anvil, Encounters at the End of theWorld, Man on Wire, Talk to Me, An Inconvenient Truth, Frozen River, Ballast, Wanted, Hellboy 2: The Golden Army, Medicine for Melancholy, Young @ Heart, Transformers, Deliver Us from Evil, 2 Days in Paris, Half Nelson, Rock School, The Devil Wears Prada, and Old Joy.

Rice will celebrate another homecoming of sorts Nov. 14 for alumnus Chris Eska '98, when his award-winning "August Evening" debuts in Houston at the Angelika Film Center and Cinema Latino de Pasadena.

That passion and dedication he captured at Rice has stayed with Eska and fueled him to write, direct and edit "August Evening," a feature film about an undocumented Mexican farm worker in the U.S. and his young, widowed daughter-in-law as they navigate life changes.

Entirely in Spanish, the film has transcended many of the roadblocks of other foreign language films. Among other accolades, it won the best feature film award at the Los Angeles Film Festival, netting the $50,000 prize that covered the less than $40,000 in production costs. At the festival it also won the best acting ensemble award.

For the full story on Rice's influence on Eska and to learn more about the film, please (click here).

Mark Brice, who graduated from Rice in the early 1980s, has been awarded an Emmy for cinematography on the Carrier series produced by Mel Gibson. Mark was one of Professor Brian Huberman's first students at Rice and has worked on many documentary productions including National Geographic's Doctors Without Borders and Paramedics. Here is an excerpt from a recent note to Professor Huberman:

"The Emmy is for Outstanding Cinematography for a Reality Series, for the Carrier series, which was shown on PBS. Carrier is a 10-hour series following a six-month deployment of the U.S.S. Nimitz aircraft carrier group in the Persian Gulf. The Award was given at the Creative Arts Emmys at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles on Saturday, September 13. [Mark Brice] gave the acceptance speech! The show will be broadcast on the E! Entertainment Network on Saturday, September 20."

When James Blue, the then-director of Rice Media Center, walked into a Texas classroom some 30 years ago, a self-described regular kid took his first step toward an extraordinary career that has taken him around the world, quite literally. Mark Brice ‘80 has spent time sleeping under the stars in Africa, crossing through war zones in Burundi, trailing an anti-kidnapping unit in Brazil, and living aboard an aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf.

It’s that last experience that led Brice, a documentary filmmaker, to the strangest place of all: Hollywood. Brice was awarded the Emmy for Outstanding Cinematography for a Reality Series for his work on the PBS film “Carrier.” Produced by Mel Gibson, “Carrier” is a 10-hour series that follows a six-month deployment of the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier during the Iraq War.

“The Media Center at Rice was my launching pad,” Brice said. “When James Blue came into my high school and showed us a 16-millimeter film he shot in Africa and talked about what he did, I thought, ‘I want to do that.’”

Though Brice discovered his passion that day, he couldn’t convince himself to pursue it fully. A wannabe marine biologist, he came to Rice as a biology major, th inking he would only dable in film in his spare time.

“I took film classes as electives,” Brice said. “It seemed like a nice break from the academic pressures of Rice. But then I realized it was because my heart wasn’t in the hard sciences.”

Spending hours and hours synching audio and video wasn’t without pressure, but Brice loved it. He still laughs fondly when he talks about the late nights he spent at the Media Center fine-tuning picture and sound while hearing Orson Welles’ “Touch of Evil” play in the screening room.

“I remember Mark as a student very well,” said Brian Huberman, chair of Visual and Dramatic Arts. “I would see him late at night in the editing room focused on his work. It was clear early on that he was committed to filmmaking.”

The commitment sometimes took extreme forms. In making a film about racial violence spurred by an incident on the Texas coast, Brice ended up with Huberman and a cameraman driving around back roads at night, unarmed, to film a Ku Klux Klan induction rally. Upon arriving, they were immediately surrounded by men with rifles.

It’s one of the most memorable experiences Huberman has had as a teacher. “I had a really good chance to see him in action,” Huberman said with a laugh.

As for the physical strains throughout his career. Brice explains that the documentary medium rarely allows for posh conditions. “The challenge of making a documentary is always finding a way to do your best work and be open to discovery when you are uncomfortable, when you’re not eating right, when it’s 110 degrees and you have no shade in sight, when the weather is fogging up your goggles on an aircraft carrier and you have no way of knowing exactly what kind of picture you’re shooting.”

But Brice doesn’t complain. Instead he talks about the awe he’s felt and the privileges he has had.

“If you really like what you’re doing, those trying conditions are all worth it. Anything for the chance for the best pictures ever,” Brice said. “You try to capture things that no one has ever seen before. I’ve had the chance to see the Pacific Ocean where it’s seven miles deep – it’s a color blue you can’t describe.”

DENT FILM RECEIVES U.S. DISTRIBUTION

The film,Unborn in the USA, made by Stephen Fell and Will Thompson, while they were undergraduate students at Rice receives U.S. distribution through First Run Features.

IMPOSSIBLE MEMORY: CINEMA, HISTORY, INFORMATIONDr. Charles Dove, Film Lecturer and Film Program Director

A transitory experience held in darkness, cinema has always had a troubled relationship with memory. With the historic changes of beginning in the early 1980s, changes in technology and distribution, cinema altered its course and therefore its relationship with memory. While a viewer's memories of a film may once have been embellished with mistakes, imaginings, or misrecognitions, now the viewer could have the film itself at hand in tape or disk or electronic form to confirm or negate the memory - or to manipulate it. Film essayist Chris Marker, in his study of human survival Sans Soleil (1982) explores these early days of the emergence of this new media, and its implications for human survival. In the film a filmmaker writes a series of letters about his travels and his feelings towards the footage he has shot, received, and carefully pieced together. Memory, in Marker's film, is filtered through ceremony, photography, and other media.

HUBERMAN PRESENTS AT THE TEXAS HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION

Associate Professor Brian Huberman will be presenting a fifteen-minute excerpt from his documentary JAXON'S RANT, filmed in 2001, as the artist who worked on Jackson's final graphic history, "The Alamo: A History Told from Both Sides," at the Texas State Historical Association's 112th Annual Meeting, March 7, 2008, in Corpus Christi.

Session #53 4;00 pm, Nueces Room AJAXON: The Amazing Life and Works of Jack Jackson

IN MEMORY OF FILM & VIDEO TECHNICIAN MICHAEL MIRON

The Rice community is mourning the loss of Rice alumnus and video technician Michael Miron, who died Feb. 3.

Miron first came to Rice as a student in Baker College, receiving a bachelor's degree in psychology in 1975. While attending Rice in the 1970s, he worked as a support technician in the film, theater and Rice Film Series programs.

Miron returned to Rice in 2000 to work full-time in the Department of Visual and Dramatic Arts, where he took care of all of the department's projectors, film editing computers, sound decks and other equipment.

"All of us will miss his sense of humor, laughter and wit," said Karin Broker, department chair. "Especially the endless statements he made with his 'fashionable' vintage T-shirt collection."

Miron is survived by his wife, Nancy Ehrlich and mother, Marjorie Miron.

A small, private funeral service for Miron is scheduled for 1 p.m. Feb. 6 at Congregation Emanu El Memorial Park.

A memorial service to honor Miron will be held 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Feb. 9 in the film auditorium of the Rice Media Center. The family requested that it be a "Michael-style" event where friends and co-workers will have the opportunity to say a few words and share stories. A reception and toast to Miron will follow in the main gallery space of the Media Center.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the Department of Visual and Dramatic Arts Film Program.

Grace Ng, Will Rice College junior, studied in Germany for her project "The American Singer on the European Stage: A Research Documentary on the Expectations and Challenges for American Opera Singers in the European Music Scene." She began her project as a way to show people something they hadn't seen before.

"By bringing Europe closer to people, I hope I can encourage them to explore their lives and the world around and beyond them," Ng said. "The Focus Europe fellowship offered me a great opportunity to experience Europe from an opera standpoint and bring this to the American audience."

Brian Huberman, associate professor of visual arts, served as her mentor, offering guidance and reminding her that every scene she used should move the film forward.

Rice alumna Marcy Garriott '79 premieres her award-winning documentary "Inside the Circle" Oct. 26 at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH) as part of the MFAH "Premieres and Revivals" series. The movie won the SXSW 2007 Audience Award.

"Inside the Circle" tells the story of two talented Texas break-dancers, Josh and Omar. The former best friends join competing dance crews and struggle to keep dance at the center of their lives as they journey to adulthood.

Film director Garriott, who has a bachelor's in electrical engineering from Rice, is a native Houstonian who now lives in Austin. She will attend the MFAH screenings and participate in a Q&A session.

SCRIPT TO SCREEN

A script to screen reading of filmmaker and guest artist Kim Henkel's script, Exurbia will be held Monday, October 29, 7:00 p.m., at the Rice Media Center. Exurbia: A first date gone horribly wrong--a black comedy about a ludicrously dysfunctional exurban family.

STUDENT FILM RECEIVES U.S. DISTRIBUTION

The film,Unborn in the USA, made by Stephen Fell and Will Thompson, while they were undergraduate students at Rice receives U.S. distribution through First Run Features.

A film by Rice undergraduate students: Amelia Reiff Hill, Benjamin Pollack and Julie Armstrong won the QFEST 2007 IKLIPZ Award.

PROFESSOR HUBERMAN'S FILM, RAY HILL'S PRISON SHOW, FEATURED AT THE TACOMA FILM FESTIVAL

Professor Brian Huberman's documentary, Ray Hill's Prison Show, will be featured at the Grand Cinema at the Tacoma Film Fesitval, October 9, 4:15 p.m.

Perhaps Houston's best-known advocate for gay rights (and a key organizer of the galvanizing Anita Bryant protests), Ray Hill is also an outspoken voice for the rights of Texas' inordinately large prison population. A former inmate himself, Hill launched The Prison Show in 1980, creating a vital means for family members to remain connected with their loved ones on the inside. As the film suggests, Hill's transformation into an advocate didn't come easily: in a scene from his play, The Prison Years, a casual act of brutality memorably transforms him from a prisoner into a citizen of humanity. Directed by Brian Huberman, USA, 2007, 58 min., DigiBeta, Color.